Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Animated GIFs

Today in class we will begin the ambitious task of creating animated GIFs. While this may seem daunting to those unfamiliar with photoshop, if you are able to create an animated GIF in photoshop, everything else will be a lot easier. By learning how to make an animated gif, you will have to comprehend the use of layers, filters and the history application. Because the exercise is

The above animation is a simple run sequence. It operates the exact same way a flipbook would operate and the process mimics the animation process animators have used since the dawn of the beginning of the craft.

A common mistake made by novice GIF creators is them thinking that when creating each individual frame, the entire figure/character must be redrawn every time. YOU ONLY HAVE TO DRAW MULTIPLES OF WHAT MOVES. Besides that, here are some rules for making your animations appear more realistic:

1. Squash and Stretch
- This action give the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves.
2. Anticipation
- Prepares the audience for a major action the character is ABOUT to perform. Ex: the windup before a baseball pitcher throws a ball. Ex 2: A boxer pulling his arm back before throwing a punch.
3. Staging - Presentation of an idea so it is clear, AKA paying attention to composition (which is paramount for all types of design/art).
4. Straight ahead & pose to pose -
by breaking down an animation cycle into three dominate drawings, in the beginning, middle and end, one can grasp a better sense of what is significant in the cycle.
5. Follow through and overlapping -
When the main part of the body stops, all other parts need to catch up. Nothing stops all at once.
6. Slow in and slow out -
When we move, there is always acceleration. Humans, cars, nothing in the universe goes from 1 mph to 90 mph without going through all the numbers in between. This is also true when something slows down.